Why I Don’t See OCD As A Monster, And You Shouldn’t Either
What are your beliefs about OCD? “It’s a terrible thing.” “It attacks for no reason.” “It’s so hard to deal with, it never ends.” “Just when I think it’s gone - it’s back.” It is spoken about as if it’s an outside entity acting against you, actively trying to sabotage you. But OCD isn’t some monster taking up residence in your brain and trying to destroy your life. I understand why a therapist might want to describe it in this way, though. Sometimes it is easier to tell a child that their scary thoughts are not their own thoughts, because they can relate to the concept of “good guys” and “bad guys.” But seriously - I am not sure that that the idea of a monster in my head isn’t even scarier than the actual original thought. Even if the person dealing with obsessive thoughts can identify with the “good guy,” they might not find motivation to fight the “bad guy.” There is a better and more accurate way to look at this issue.
Do you know anyone with an autoimmune disorder? Chances are highly likely you do! An autoimmune disorder is a disease in which the body damages healthy cells. Naturally, your body’s immune system is designed to protect you from disease and infection. In an autoimmune response, your body makes a mistake. It’s not as if the body suddenly goes rogue and decided to turn on you with malicious intent. Instead, your body’s immune system is almost too strong. It is too active. It’s trying to help protect you - but it’s going too far.
That is how I think about processes involved in OCD. Instead of the immune system, we are dealing with the caudate nucleus, a component of the basal ganglia which is situated at the base of the forebrain. Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz (University of California, Los Angeles), and author of the popular book, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior, calls this the brain’s ‘error detection circuitry.’ In other words, if there is a problem, your error detection circuitry will alert you to it. If your are in trouble, the error detection circuitry will warn you about it. The trouble with OCD is, a mistake in an email may feel similarly alarming to a tiger running after you. Probably not identical, but you understand the point. In OCD, your brain is trying to keep you safe and sound. It is presenting problems for you to work on and fix. Sometimes they relate to real life situations, and other times they can be ‘what-if’ scenarios.
Ultimately, your brain is not attacking you with thoughts. Thoughts are just thoughts. Thoughts have the power we let them have. Of course there are some thoughts that would freak out anyone. But they are still just thoughts. They are not truths. They are not who you are. (Thank goodness for that! If we were responsible for our thoughts, we’d all be in trouble.)
It is more accurate to see our brain’s error detection circuitry as our friend. Our overly-anxious-well-meaning friend that is just trying to help, and doesn’t know any better. So it falls to us to train it.
If OCD were a monster, it would be attacking you with obsessive thoughts and disturbing mental images to purposefully cause you distress. However, there is no biological purpose for that.
Instead of a monster, imagine a puppy. This puppy is skittish. It is small and the world is scary. The puppy looks to you for reassurance that it is safe or confirmation that it is in danger. Your behaviors will tell it which one it is. When you are walking your dog past another dog, if you pick up the pace, tighten the leash and cross over to the other side of the street, your behaviors are confirming to your dog that you are not safe near the other dog. Have you ever tried to train a puppy? You have to be in charge - you can't let the puppy be the boss. The more consistent you are as a trainer, the easier it is for the puppy to learn that it does not have to worry.
Much like you have to be strong for your puppy so it can experience security, you also have to be strong for the OCD (or more specifically, the error detection circuitry) in order to teach it that you are safe and this is a false alarm.
What happens when you let the OCD have the control over YOUR behavior?
Ella
My eight-year-old hound dog, Ella, is very good at the business of being a dog. She looks out the window and barks at anyone who dares to walk on “her” street. She thinks she is protecting herself, her pack, and home. And it works! Every time she barks - they leave. The offenders never stay for long on her street. She doesn’t realize that it is not her bark that’s doing the trick. That’s just a coincidence of course. But you can see how the results are pretty convincing. My dog is consistently reinforcing her perceived need to bark at neighbors to protect herself because, in her mind, it works.
In the OCD cycle, the results can be just as convincing. There is a trigger, or a cue for an obsession. Then there is an obsessive thought, and this can seem to occur simultaneously. Next, there is a feeling of distress. This can feel like anxiety, fear, worry, simply annoyance, or any number of other uncomfortable feelings. Naturally next, there is an urge to “fix” the situation by either engaging in a compulsive behavior or an avoidant behavior. And then… voila! The distressed feeling lessens, or even goes away. Unfortunately, much like people on my street, it is only a matter of time before the obsessions and accompanying distress will return.
The OCD Cycle | © The Anxiety Doctor
Since this is a process that can be responsive to a intervention called exposure with response prevention (ERP), we can actually train the brain to start to turn down the volume on these false alarms. This occurs through something we call habituation. Habituation refers to the the diminishing of a physiological or emotional response to a frequently repeated stimulus.
Think about this example: You move to a new home within hearing distance to active train tracks. At first, each time you hear a train go by, you are startled by the noise. Eventually, your startle response weakens and before you realize it, you are barely noticing the trains. Is the noise (trigger) changing? Nope. It is your brain that is changing. It has habituated to that particular sound and can now ignore it. This means your brain does not have to bring it to your conscious attention.
So while there is no scary monster in your brain, there is a scared error detection circuitry. You just have to show it it's safe. Tell it you’ve got this.
This article is for informational purposes only, even if and to the extent that it features the advise of medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advise, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.
